INVESTIGATORS have linked two weekend murders to the ongoing gang feud in the tough Red Hills Road community known as Common, which has continued to bleed despite the presence of the security forces in the hotbed community.

Since violence broke out in the area on the morning of the Opposition Jamaica Labour Party conference, in October, at least nine murders have been linked to the conflict.

Police say a well-organised gang based at Common has begun to self-destruct resulting in murder and mayhem in the community. At least nine families have been forced to flee their homes as a result of the conflict.

The latest casualty of the gang violence in the volatile Kingston community has been identified only as ‘Ronnie’. The police said he was shot in the head about 8:30 yesterday morning in the nearby community of Valentine Gardens.

About 12 hours earlier gunmen attacked and murdered 36-year-old cosmetologist Stephanie Whyte outside a restaurant at Meadowbrook Avenue. Police theorise that Whyte was killed because of her close connection with a leading player in the conflict.

“We are trying to make sure that these two murders are linked to the violence now taking hold of the community,” the deputy police commissioner in charge of the Major Investigative Task Force, Les Green, told the Observer yesterday.

The police also believe that the murder of a Norman Manley High School student at a playfield beside the school last week is also linked to the ongoing gang war.

The police have identified others killed in the conflict as, Ezra Patrick, also called ‘Slicer’, brothers Everton Simpson and Mark Anthony Simpson, Douglas Shields, also called ‘Globbin’, Tyrone Ashley, also called ‘Curru’ and businessman Rohan Haye.

Meanwhile, the police have also stepped up patrols in the volatile Mountain View Avenue in East Kingston after the driver and conductor of a minibus were killed as they sat in a vehicle at the intersection of Windward Road and Mountain View Avenue on Saturday.

“This is a worry area for us,” Green said yesterday.

The dead men have been identified as Dalton Green, 47, also called ‘Linksman’ and Michael Tapper, also called Phillip.

Police say both men were sitting in the bus when they were attacked by four armed men, who shot them dead. Two women were passengers in the bus received gunshot injuries. Police suspect that the men were murdered in revenge for the shooting and injury of an area leader from a Mountain View community known as ‘Jarrett’.

The police also reported yesterday that two persons were killed in an area known as ‘Compound’, which runs off Olympic Way in Kingston.